


Make A Wish When Your Childhood Dies

by Tempxtempx



Category: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Comic)
Genre: Folklore, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Major Character Death but all deaths are offscreen and canon, a lot of canon dying, except one unnamed guy, mostly takes place pre-comics, of the fictional variety, this isn't really a sad fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2016-01-19
Packaged: 2018-05-14 22:30:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5761309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tempxtempx/pseuds/Tempxtempx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Yeah, that's it," Dr. D said to The Girl, wiggling the finger that she'd latched onto with her tiny hand. "You're okay now. We've got you. You're going to be just fine."</p>
<p>Five times the Phoenix Witch crossed paths with The Girl, interspersed with four scenes from The Girl's life in between.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Make A Wish When Your Childhood Dies

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this for the Fairy Tales and Folklore square for my Gen Prompt Bingo card. Title from S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W by MCR.
> 
> If this fic had a cover photo, it would be [this](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/90/The_Only_Hope_for_Me_Is_You_Single.jpg).

The first time the Phoenix Witch saw The Girl, she had still yet to be born.

There were too many Draculoids around. The Phoenix Witch hated Draculoids. Not because they were the cause of too many deaths - there were too many killers now and she'd been around for too long to care about that. But they were impossible tasks. She'd tried to pull the souls out from many of them, but they were too muddied and distant for even her to reach. Every dead Draculoid felt like a defeat.

She'd seen the woman before, of course. Enough that she felt familiar now. The Witch knew that the Draculoids weren't the woman's fault, but their deaths often were, and she resented the woman for those.

It had been several months since the last time their paths had crossed, and the woman had changed immensely since then. It wasn't just the fact that she was now obviously pregnant; there was something else about her. Her spirit looked brighter, more vibrant, than anything in the desert around her, and though the woman had always had more of a spark of life in her than most others, it was multiplied many times now.

The woman must have been able to feel it somehow, despite not being able to see it like the Phoenix Witch, because she seemed to be enjoying herself more than usual. She was riding her bike at top speed in the direction of some distant hills, carrying a messenger bag with her, and was laughing and whooping even despite the Draculoids chasing after her.

The Phoenix Witch watched as the Draculoids drew within shooting range. As they began to fire, the woman started swerving back and forth in an effort to avoid the blasts. She turned around and fired several times at the closest of the Draculoids, finally hitting his bike in the right location to set it ablaze. The bike and rider abruptly fell to the ground, in the process causing two of the other three riders to spin out of control as they swerved to avoid hitting the wreck.

The last rider hesitated for a moment before continuing after the woman, but she had passed out of range again and as she drove she fired a couple of warning shots behind her. The rider turned around and headed back for the others. They conferred for a moment before heading back toward Battery City, and the Phoenix Witch steeled herself for a fruitless attempt to reach the dead Draculoid's soul.

 

\---

 

The Killjoys drove from one ghost town to the next, not always with a clear goal in mind.

Party Poison always had the wheel, and Fun Ghoul always sat behind him. ("I've got your back," he said, tapping the gun on his hip.) The Kobra Kid and Jet Star traded spots depending on who was sick of putting up with who that day, or whose turn it was to have to deal with decreased leg room, or who was working on a project to write down all the horror movie plotlines they could remember, because, "Oh my God, what if we _forget_?" and needed the back middle seat in order to sprawl out because "it helps me think better, okay?"

And then they heard rumors about The Girl, and suddenly they had a mission - infiltrate Battery City and smuggle her out of there.

Easier said than done, and it was another month before they were all running out of an apartment building, the Kobra Kid hunched around The Girl and the rest shooting at the Dracs who were doing their damn best to take them down.

They flew through several alleyways and emerged onto a main street. As they ducked into an alcove, Jet Star pulled out a two-way radio and yelled into it, "We're here, hurry up! We've got a ton of them on our backs." A few moments later, Cherri Cola came speeding up to them in the car and they all jumped in before gunning it out of there.

None of the Dracs that had followed them out of the apartment had motorcycles, but as they reached the edge of the city two cars pulled up behind them and started firing. The Kobra Kid huddled down on the floor, stroking The Girl's hair and trying to calm her down as the rest of the Killjoys started shooting back. The Girl shrieked every time they made a sudden turn or a blast ricocheted off the car. Eventually they managed to shoot out the tires on both of the cars and started on a circuitous route back to the station, just in case someone was following them.

The journey took a couple of hours, and in the meantime they each took turns holding The Girl and trying to calm her down. She finally fell asleep against Jet Star, holding a fistful of his hair.

By the time they reached the station, The Girl was awake again, crying and struggling. Jet Star walked extra slowly as he followed the rest into the station, worried about accidentally dropping her.

"Here, let me see her," Dr. Death Defying called out from inside. When Jet Star handed her over, she calmed down immediately.

"Yeah, that's it," Dr. D said to The Girl, wiggling the finger that she'd latched onto with her tiny hand. "You're okay now. We've got you. You're going to be just fine."

 

\---

 

The second time the Phoenix Witch met The Girl, she was making her rounds when she came upon the Killjoys gathered in a semi-circle around one of the mailboxes. Party Poison was carrying The Girl, who was holding a letter in her hands. He stepped toward the mailbox and said something to The Girl in an undertone. She shook her head and clutched the letter to her chest.

"No?" asked Party Poison.

"Tell me again," The Girl commanded.

"We told you last night," Fun Ghoul said. "And yesterday morning. And on the way over here."

"Tell me again," she repeated.

Party Poison sighed and sat down. The others sat along with him. The Girl wiggled away and went to Jet Star, who settled her in his lap.

"Sometimes, people get real sick, or they get hurt really bad, and their bodies stop working," Party Poison began. "Then they die. And that means that they aren't a person anymore in the same way that you're used to. There's two parts of a person - their body and their soul. And while you're alive, your soul is inside your body. But when you die, your soul leaves your body.

"Your soul goes on to a different place, somewhere that's very far away. And sometimes people can get lost on their way there. So the Phoenix Witch helps everyone's souls get there. And to help her, we can give her something that belonged to a dead person, or something that was very important to them. So that's what we're doing now, to make sure your mom finds her way."

The Girl sat thinking for a moment. "But what if you die and nobody helps the Phoenix Witch find you? Do you get stuck?"

Party Poison hesitated and looked at the others.

"No," the Kobra Kid picked up. "Pretend it's like... If I told you that I had a present for you, and that I put it somewhere in the station, you'd be able to find it, right? It might take you a while, but the station isn't a really big place, so you'd be able to find it eventually." The Girl nodded. "That's what it would be like if the Phoenix Witch couldn't help you. But pretend that Dr. Death Defying saw me put the present in there. He knows where it is, so he can just take you right to it. That's what the Phoenix Witch does."

The Girl nodded then stood up, walked to the mailbox, and stared at it. "Where does it go in?"

Party Poison picked her up and pulled open the slot. "Drop it in there, kiddo."

The slot creaked as it shut, and Party Poison and Jet Star walked back to the car with The Girl.

Fun Ghoul pulled a letter out from inside his jacket and headed for the mailbox. The Kobra Kid turned around and looked straight at the Phoenix Witch. She looked back - it was very rare that a human could see her. When the mailbox creaked again, the Kobra Kid nodded at her once then turned to Fun Ghoul, who patted the mailbox twice then clinched his fist to his chest before turning around and heading back for the car. The Kobra Kid stopped him and whispered something in his ear. Fun Ghoul spun around and looked at a point a few feet to the left of where the Phoenix Witch was standing.

"Really?" he asked the Kobra Kid, who nodded then set off for the others. Fun Ghoul followed a moment later.

Loud music came on as the car started up and sped away. The Phoenix Witch pushed her cart to the mailbox and began unloading.

 

\---

 

Fun Ghoul was stretched out as best as he could across the back seat of the car. He was laying on his back, eyes closed, occasionally taking sips of some unfortunately warm soda. The Girl was sitting half on his toes and half on the seat, humming to herself as she colored over some spare Wanted posters featuring the Killjoy's faces. In the front seat Jet Star was flipping through a magazine.

They were waiting outside of one of the few stores in the area that was still open for business. Inside, Party Poison and the Kobra Kid were bargaining with the owner, trying to see what they had to trade in exchange for some decent food. It had been a while since they'd gone in, and Fun Ghoul would be worried, but there had been no crashes or blaster sounds coming from inside, and while the Killjoys got into trouble frequently, it was never _quiet_.

"Fun Ghoul?" The Girl asked.

"Hm?" he replied.

"Why do you write so many letters to your mom and dad?"

He opened his eyes and looked at The Girl. "What do you mean?"

"You write letters so the Phoenix Witch can help dead people, right?" He nodded. "Do your mom and dad need a lot of help? Does it not always work?"

"Oh. No, it always works. I just write those letters to make myself feel better. I like to think that the Phoenix Witch can maybe get the letters to them anyway, even if their souls are already where they're supposed to be."

"Oh," replied The Girl.

"And sometimes it's just nice to write letters. I used to write to my grandparents a lot, and that was before the Phoenix Witch was even around."

"If the Phoenix Witch wasn't there, then who took the letters to your grandma and grandpa?"

"Oh, no, they were still alive. That was how people messaged each other before they invented, like, phones and stuff. You'd write a letter and stick it in the mailbox, then the mailman would take the letter to the person's house, and then they could write back."

"What's a mailman? Is that like the Phoenix Witch?"

"Not really. They were human, for one," Fun Ghoul said. "But they were still really cool, though. It was their job to make sure the mail got where it was going safely, because people used to do a lot of important things by mail. They had this saying, something like, 'neither snow nor rain nor...' uh, well, something else-"

"Unbearable desert heat, I think," Jet Star interrupted, gesturing around them.

"-yeah probably that, too, 'stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.' So these guys were pretty much unstoppable. There were even people sending poisonous letters for a while, and they still did their jobs."

"Wow. That's really cool! Can I be a mailman when I grow up?"

"Kiddo, when you grow up, you can be whatever you want."

 

\---

 

The next time the Phoenix Witch saw the Killjoys more than in passing, they were breaking into BLI headquarters in downtown Battery City. The Kobra Kid saw her as he entered the building but he didn't slow down, just kept pace behind Party Poison as they stormed through the lobby. The Phoenix Witch stayed where she was as Draculoids rushed through the building. No matter what happened, she was going to have work to do shortly.

The Killjoys were back just moments later, now escorting The Girl out of the building. Korse and several Draculoids attacked as they were about to leave, and the end result was several dead Draculoids, four dead Killjoys, and The Girl in a van headed out of the city at top speed.

The Phoenix Witch moved quickly after the action was over, trying to catch the Killjoys' souls before they wondered off, but it was too late. She sensed that they were together, however, and hoped that maybe the Kobra Kid's intuition could lead them in the right direction.

 

\---

 

It had been six years since she'd lost the Killjoys, and The Girl was still running. She had stayed in familiar locations for years until her tenth birthday, when she stole some maps from the station and followed an old highway north until she hit the mountains. She had spent a lot of time up there, but now she felt compelled to head back closer to home.

She stopped for the night in an old music store. The place had been ransacked, and she had to sweep broken discs off the floor to make room for her sleeping bag. There wasn't anything playable left in the building but maybe she was finally close enough- yes, her radio could just pick out the music coming from Dr. Death Defying's station. The song playing was new, or maybe very old, one she hadn't heard before, but something in her chest eased with the knowledge that Dr. D was on the other end of the radio. The Girl burrowed into her sleeping bag and tried to fall asleep, but one part of her brain was yelling at the other part, and she couldn't ignore it long enough to drift off.

She had passed a mailbox on her way through the town, the first one she'd seen in ages. Someone had painted a rough sketch of the Phoenix Witch on it. A large part of her wanted to write to the Killjoys. It had been so long since they'd been taken from her, and she still missed them deeply. But she'd also grown up a lot since then and she had decided that she didn't believe in the Phoenix Witch. She'd talked to a couple of the people from the mountains, and they said that the Phoenix Witch wasn't real, or she didn't show up around there, and it did seem like the kind of story you would tell to little kids. So she'd walked on past the mailbox and hadn't paid it any more attention. But now, without anything else to think about, some part of her was sure that she was making a huge mistake. She finally resolved that she'd write a letter to the Killjoys in the morning and drop it in the box. Even if the Phoenix Witch wasn't real, it couldn't hurt, she decided. With that, she rolled over and firmly willed herself to sleep.

When she woke, she stayed silent for a moment, looking and listening to make sure she was alone. She was lucky, she knew, because so far she hadn't had any humans or Dracs sneak up on her while she was sleeping, but she'd had a few encounters with some (thankfully harmless) animals, and it never hurt to be as safe as possible. After making sure that she was alone, she got up and set about looking for some paper. She found some stuffed in a cabinet in the back room, sat down, and began to write.

_Dear Jet Star, Kobra Kid, Fun Ghoul, and Party Poison_

_It has been so long since I've seen you. I still miss you all the time. I hope you're doing okay. I hope that if there's somewhere good to go after you're dead that you made it there._

_Don't worry about me. I've been doing fine. I've been hiding, just like you told me to. I ran a long way away. I made it to the mountains. Things are a lot different there. They have trees there, and there was this thing called a river, where water just runs around on the ground. I met a lady there who told me that it used to be a lake, which is like a big hole in the earth that's just filled with water. I think they used to have those when you were little, but I've still never seen one._

_I miss you. I don't know what else to say. I love you all, for always._

When she was done writing the letter she packed up her stuff and headed outside. The sun was still low in the sky as she walked to the mailbox and dropped the folded piece of paper in. She tapped the mailbox twice then brought her fist to her heart in the same gesture that Fun Ghoul had taught her when she was little. Then she turned her radio on and headed toward her former home. "Something good's coming this way for us today," Dr. D was saying. "So this one's to get you pumped up for whatever it's going to be."

 

\---

 

A day after the Phoenix Witch spoke with The Girl for the first time, after Cherri Cola's death, she saw her standing next to a mailbox near the nest. The Girl dropped two letters in the mailbox, thumped her palm against the mailbox twice, then brought her hand to her heart before picking up her radio and backpack and heading east.

The Phoenix Witch opened the mailbox and pulled out the two letters on top of the stack inside. The two envelopes were addressed in the same shaky handwriting to Dr. Death Defying and Cherri Cola. One contained a picture of a man in a wheelchair laughing while another man bent over to throw an arm around him, his other hand holding a sword. In the background, someone in polka dot leggings and a helmet was giving a peace sign to the camera. Along with the picture were a couple drawings done by a child and a cassette tape.

The other envelope held several pieces of paper with song titles scribbled on them, a letter that appeared to have been written by The Girl, and a singular dog tag on a red piece of string. The name on the dog tag was that of someone the Phoenix Witch had run across many years ago. She ran her fingers over the name before placing it back in its envelope and continuing on.

 

\---

 

The Girl took the long way to where Val and the Ultra V's were camped out. First she'd put together some letters for Dr. Death Defying and Cherri Cola and sent them off, but then she decided to head for the graffiti wall to the east of Ghost Station 2. It took her a while to actually find it because she'd been intentionally avoiding the place for her entire life, and she wasn't exactly sure where it was.

The graffiti wall was the only remaining part of an old apartment building. It was brick under all the paint, but someone had painted it black as high up as they could reach, and then people had started writing on it. The Killjoys had taken her there once, a few months before they died. It had been before she'd been able to read, and they'd explained to her that all the writing on the wall was about her.

She hadn't understood then, but later she realized that people expected her to be able to save the world and get rid of BLI. She'd hated the idea; had never believed that it was real. She had always ignored it or changed the subject when conversations started going in that direction. But then the Phoenix Witch had told her that it was true, so she figured she might as well see what it was that people were actually saying about her.

It turned out that the wall wasn't very specific. There were a lot of variations on the theme of "The Girl will save us and we will be free" but none of them mentioned how exactly she was going to do it. She stared at the wall for a long time, reading everything that was on it, then picked up a can of blue spray paint that someone had left behind and wrote over it all, "The Girl says, SAVE YOURSELVES."

 

\---

 

The Phoenix Witch was holding a bundle of letters when she met up with The Girl for the final time.

"I see you two found each other," she said. The Girl was holding her mother's hand as they made their way across the desert.

"I found her first thing when I woke up here," The Girl said.

"We've been getting to know each other," her mother added.

"These came for you," the Phoenix Witch said, holding the bundle out to The Girl. "There's more, but these are the ones from people you know."

The Girl shuffled through the letters, murmuring the names of their senders as she went through them. "Show Pony?" she asked, looking up at the Phoenix Witch. "Who's that?"

"Oh, let me see," said her mother. "He used to work at the station with Dr. D back when I was around; I'd think you'd have met him if you spent much time there at all..." she opened the letter and pulled a picture out. "Yes, here you are. Oh, you were so cute."

The Girl and the Phoenix Witch both tilted their heads to look at the picture. In it, The Girl, only a few months old, was sitting on a turntable. Show Pony was standing behind her, supporting her in a sitting position and making sure she didn't fall off.

"Oh, I remember now..." The Girl said softly.

"He was in the van that took you away from the BLI building when the Killjoys came to rescue you," the Phoenix Witch offered.

"The Killjoys. They made it... wherever it is that we're going... they made it there, right? And you're here now, you can take us there? We can see them again? I miss them so much."

"Yes, they made it. Come, both of you hold my hands. We can be there in a few minutes."

The Girl and her mother had been going in the right direction, but with the Phoenix Witch to guide them they could move along the desert at an impossible pace. She grasped their hands, The Girl to her left and her mother to her right, and started along, glad to finally be able to lead them to rest.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh man. This started out as an entirely different story, but then I actually re-read the comics and realized that the timeline would absolutely not work with what I was trying to write.
> 
> I looked at the 'folklore' prompt and said to myself, 'hey it'd be cool if you did a story set in Future America where mailmen had reached legend status' and decided to set that in this 'verse because it's one of the only things I can write that's set in Future America. Imagine my surprise when I re-read the comics and realized that there's already in-universe worldbuilding around mailboxes. I couldn't have planned that better if I'd tried.
> 
> Thanks to Lix for picking out my preview snippet for me.


End file.
